Uzbekistan

Foreign Relations

Uzbekistan's location, bordering the volatile Middle East, as well as
its rich natural resources and commercial potential, thrust it into the
international arena almost immediately upon gaining independence. During
the early 1990s, wariness of renewed Russian control led Uzbekistan
increasingly to seek ties with other countries. Indeed, little over a year
after independence, Uzbekistan had been recognized by 120 countries and
had opened or planned to open thirty-nine foreign embassies. Experts
believed that in this situation Uzbekistan would turn first to neighboring
countries such as Iran and Turkey. Although the cultural kinship and
proximity of those countries has encouraged closer relations, Uzbekistan
also has shown eagerness to work with a range of partners to create a
complex web of interrelationships that includes its immediate Central
Asian neighbors, Russia and other nations of the CIS, and the immediate
Middle Eastern world, with the goal of becoming an integral part of the
international community on its own terms.